After finishing fourth in the TCR Australia series in 2021, Luke King was a surprise absentee on the grid this year but told Auto Action he was putting in place plans to race in WTCR later in the year.

The WTCR is the global series of TCR competitions and brings together some of the best touring car drivers in the world on some of the most iconic circuits.

King admitted that he intended to race in TCR Australia again this season, but due to the late arrival last year he could not find enough sponsors for the first round and did not want not rush into late deals.

“The late end of 2021 and the early start has been really tough for us trying to get sponsors approved in time,” King told Auto Action. “It was a challenge for us.”

“I would love to do a last minute deal, but they end up not going well very often.

“I’m trying to line things up so that we have a good deal for the second half of this year or have some really good one-off events, WTCR is your hot scoop.

“If everything had gone well, I’d like to say we would have done the 12 Hours of Bathurst, a round of the WTCR and helped some people up and down the pit lane here (in TCR Australia).

King knew after missing the first round that it was better to look elsewhere and aim high.

“After fighting with Chaz for the championship last year, we really needed to come back and fight again,” King said.

“If we couldn’t do that, you have to compete at a higher level and the path for the TCR is Europe and the World Series and that’s where we want to be.

“The Spanish round looks pretty good, at Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, but all the European rounds are great.

“We have Asian based sponsors from 2021 so the Macau Grand Prix is ​​definitely on the bucket list, there are some pretty cool events I would love to attend and those are the ones we are targeting.”

To date, only one Australian has raced in WTCR.

Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Dylan O’Keeffe drove a Renault Mégane prepared by Vukovic Motorsport and was competitive all weekend.

“The Renault, as we all know, is probably not the best package, he was knocking on the top 10 door, so I think we could go and do the same,” King firmly believes.

“The caliber of the category is quite high in Australia. It’s a good criterion for us, it shows that we can also participate in the WTCR.”

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